K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist
Residents and elected officials from the Municipality of Campbell’s Bay gathered at the town’s RA centre on Thursday evening to participate in a public consultation on how to make the town more resilient to climate change.
The consultation is one of the first phases in a project called “My municipality is going green,” which is funded by the provincial government’s environment ministry and administered by Outaouais environmental agency CREDDO.
The municipality received a $70,000 grant from the province in June 2024 to participate in this program, which aims to support greenery projects focused on reducing the impact of climate change on towns, particularly heat waves and torrential rains.
“It’s a program that CREDDO put in place to help municipalities get the help and accompaniment that they need for them to [ . . . ] be more resilient to climate change,” said Anta Diama Kama, co-project lead with CREDDO.
Kama and her co-lead Alan Dabrowski presented eight months of research they did on the impact of climate change on Campbell’s Bay, which found among other things that by the year 2050, there could be as many as 20 days at 30 degrees Celsius or hotter every year, as opposed to just six on average over the past few years.
The project’s website states that it will focus on reducing the number of pavement surfaces and increasing the amount of green spaces, which “encourage the creation of urban heat islands during heat waves and cause health issues.”
Pavement surfaces also prevent water from soaking into the ground during periods of strong rain, potentially causing overflows, floods and backflows of water and damaging buildings.
“The installation or improvement of green infrastructure can respond to these issues by creating ‘cooling islands’ and allowing the infiltration of rainwater,” reads the website. “By greening our town centres, we are ensuring a better quality of life for our residents and a healthy environment.
The pair said that planting more trees and creating more green spaces in the downtown core could reduce the number of hot days while also bringing other benefits, including a better quality of life, increased property values and beautification of the town.
After Kama and Dabrowski presented their research, they also showed the crowd examples of what green spaces could be added to the town, including planting trees in the downtown core as well as on residential streets, and separating the sidewalks from the road by a tree-lined strip.
Then, the pair asked attendees to gather around table-sized maps of the town and place sticky notes on the areas they thought needed greening, as well as areas of the town they liked and thought should be highlighted with beautification efforts.
“We chose the area from Front Street going toward the church,” said resident and councillor Jean-Pierre Landry on behalf of his group. The crowd agreed this stretch was one of the town’s biggest selling points among locals and tourists alike, and that it should be prioritized when it comes to greening efforts.
Campbell’s Bay mayor Raymond Pilon said the town council wanted to get involved in this project to improve its resilience to climate change, while also making the town more attractive to residents and visitors.
“Global warming is a real thing, so by planting different trees of different species at different locations, this should help to cool down the downtown core,” he said.
Pilon added that there are secondary benefits to the greening project as well, including making the streets cooler and more comfortable to walk on for residents, including seniors, who are more vulnerable.
“Also, for the capture of the rainwater, and for the safety of pedestrians,” he said, adding that the area of Leslie Street and south is the area they will be focusing on.
The council hasn’t decided exactly which solutions it wants to pursue, but Pilon likes the idea of narrowing areas of Leslie Street by expanding the green space on either side, as this would help slow traffic on a busy school road.
“We want to make it safe for the students,” he said. “We have the speed limit set to 30 kilometres an hour, but there have been two accidents in the last couple of years that just show a lot of people don’t respect that speed limit, and we want to make it safer for everybody.”
As part of its participation in this greening initiative, Campbell’s Bay must contribute 20 per cent toward the costs of the project. Pilon said council has yet to decide how much it will contribute, but will discuss it at future meetings.
“We went through different scenarios and it’s still to be determined depending on our budget,” he said.
Kama and Dabrowski will take the town’s feedback into consideration and will come up with concepts, to be presented to the town in the spring and summer of this year.